31
Aug
Eraserheads Reunion Concert
Everyone already knows how the big Eraserheads Reunion Concert ended last night, so no point rehashing the gory details.
I had a lot of issues with how the concert at the Fort was organized and run. The venue layout was pretty terrible, and the idea of having two hierarchical layers of Important People (VIP and SVIP, in front of the people who actually paid to get in) is, in my mind, totally at odds with what Eraserheads music stood for. When Rage Against the Machine reunited 2 years ago, the people who were in front were fans, not celebrities. People who waited for hours in the heat to see their favorite band onstage again, not people who arrived in chauffeured vehicles at the last minute and were served refreshments while they waited. Granted, I’m sure there are quite a few celebrities out there that really are Eraserheads fans, but the idea of segregating them because they’re better than us bugs the living crap out of me.
And if that sounds like overstating the issue, it really isn’t. What other reason would there be to have an SVIP section? Like the mysterious Radiohead Media company that threw this concert together at the last minute, that term seems to have sprung into existence out of nowhere. There were some hardcore fans who won VIP tickets via radio contests or whatever, but you had to be _invited_ to get into the SVIP section. And what the fuck kind of acronym is SVIP anyway. But I digress.
I guess it’s a testament to how much I love this band that even with all the crap these organizers pulled and the really spotty production values, it was still a wonderful listening experience. There was something magical about being squeezed in with all these sweaty, smelly people I didn’t know, and yet knew every single line of lyric of my favorite songs. These were _our_ songs after all. It was the soundtrack of our young adult lives. The stuff we’d make mixtapes out of, or tap our feet to in jeepneys. The stuff we’d sneak into class with and listen to when the teacher got boring. The stuff we’d play when life served us up some things we couldn’t quite handle yet. The stuff we’d celebrate with, or grieve with. Ultimately what matters is that for seventy-five minutes on August 30, 2008, ten thousand people were collectively transported back in time to remember exactly what that was like.
August 31st, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Well said! Eraserheads is truly one of a kind!
September 1st, 2008 at 12:15 am
I think I’m gona tear up reading the last lines. I soo wish I was there, too. :(
September 1st, 2008 at 12:02 pm
I agree, the venue layout was terrible! I can’t believe they put that sound check stage right in the middle of the VIP and Patron (we were in Patron).
“SVIP”… We think it stands for “Super Very Important People”. We were also looking for “SDVIP” (Super Duper Very Important People). Sheeeesh! So unfair. We paid, they didn’t.
September 1st, 2008 at 12:52 pm
I dont know how exactly to react to this but apparently the other three eheads decided to play in saguijo about 3am that night.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIC7kX9VT8o
Yes Ely was said to be in stable condition na by then but what I see is that one of the four got hurt and frenemies or not, the other three decided to party the rest of the night.
Yes it was impromptu but 10,000 plus die hard fans paid 1,300 and 800 bucks to be 100 meters away from the stage while a handful of people got an up close and personal show in a bar that charges about 150 bucks to get in
Ebe of sugarfree fits quite well though as a substitute vocalist.
September 1st, 2008 at 9:10 pm
“So Very Important People,” clearly.
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:33 am
[…] thing I hated about the concert though is the poor way they designed the venue layout. I agree with what Luis said about it. I was pretty pissed that night when I stepped inside the venue and saw the horrible, […]
September 2nd, 2008 at 9:51 am
@luis. Lol. Yeah, clearly. I was just kidding. :D
September 5th, 2008 at 11:32 am
well said man. Call out pretentious when you see it.
For some reason or another (i might have read it on some other blog or what not) I thought there were more than 10k people there?
September 7th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
@thegreatest — Yeah, apparently, when you’re in the middle of 40,000 people, it looks like 10,000 coz you can’t see the edges of the crowd anymore. Go figure.
September 9th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Before, the whole thing got me depressed. After reading your post, it got me mad. Dunno which is better. :-/